Lt. Governor Diane D. DenishDiane D. Denish is the first woman to be elected Lt. Governor in New Mexico. A lifelong New Mexican, Ms. Denish was raised in Hobbs and has lived, worked and come to know residents throughout the state. She is the former chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico and for twelve years owned a successful small business. Named one of the Top 100 New Mexicans in honor of her community leadership, the lieutenant governor has served as Chair of New Mexico First, New Mexico Community Foundation, the state's Commission on the Status of Women and the New Mexico Tech Board of Regents.
During her time in office she has fought to improve education by expanding pre-Kindergarten programs across the state and getting stage agencies to band together to prepare the "Educonomy" of our future workforce. She signed into law bills creating the Children's Cabinet and the Next Generation Fund to support positive after-school activities. She led the Health Coverage for All New Mexicans Committee and will push to extend insurance to all of New Mexico's 400,000 uninsured in the 2008 session.
The lieutenant governor has held 25 small business forums throughout the state to connect businesses with public and private programs. She has successfully pushed for programs that provide microloans and other forms of capital to businesses. She brokered an agreement on new payday lending regulations and reform of the Regional Housing Authority. And she led the effort to provide home loan protection that has helped New Mexico consumers avoid high-cost mortgages.
Her numerous honors include PNM's Entrepreneur Advocate of the Year (2006); WesstCorp's New Mexico Entrepreneurial Advocate of the year (2006); Leadership New Mexico's Distinguished Alumnus Award (2006); the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award (2005); Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce's Excellence in Education Award (2005); the Women Impacting Public Policy New Mexico Legislative Leadership Award (2004); and the American Academy of Pediatrics' Child Health Advocate (2004).
This year, she is to receive the University of New Mexico's James F. Zimmerman Award for outstanding alumni.
In addition to her official duties, Diane also serves on the Daniels Fund Board of Directors and, as a niece to the late Bill Daniels, is the only family member currently on the Board. She is married to Herb Denish and has three children and two grandchildren.
Anne Mosle - Vice President, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Anne Mosle is vice president for programs at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan. She serves on the executive team providing overall direction for the foundation and manages its philanthropy and volunteerism programming, human and financial resource allocation, and internal and external communications. She has more than 19 years of experience in philanthropy and community advocacy, and she served previously as president of the Washington Area Women’s Foundation and as senior president for leadership initiatives, vice president for policies and program, and director for women’s program at the Center for Policy Alternatives in Washington, D.C.
Janet Hansen, Ph.D. - Vice President and Director of Education Studies
Janet Hansen serves as CED’s Vice President and Director of Education Studies. She has directed several CED reports on such education issues as improving public investment in education, prekindergarten for all, and educational assessment and measurement.
Dr. Hansen initially joined CED in 1999 and rejoined in 2007 after spending three years as Senior Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation. At RAND her work focused on transforming American school finance into a performance-oriented system that supports and encourages the effective use of educational resources to improve student learning, especially in traditionally-underperforming urban areas. She was RAND's project director on a joint study of school finance reform sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
From 1991-98 Dr. Hansen was senior program officer at the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council (NAS/NRC). She was study director for the Committee on Education Finance and co-edited (with Helen F. Ladd) the committee’s 1999 report, Making Money Matter: Financing America’s Schools. She served as director of the Board on International Comparative Studies in Education, and also prepared NAS/NRC reports on education and training for the workplace. Earlier, Dr. Hansen was Director for Policy Analysis for The College Board and an academic administrator at Princeton University and the Claremont Colleges.
Dr. Hansen received a Ph.D. in public and international affairs from Princeton University.
Katherine Freeman - CEO, United Way of Santa Fe County
Chair, New Mexico Early Childhood Development Partnership
Masters in Social Work and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and continuing education courses at Harvard Medical School.
As President and CEO, Katherine transformed United Way of Santa Fe County (UWSFC) by leading the board to adopt a new mission in support of creating lasting change in chronic community conditions. Early childhood education was selected as the vehicle and the Santa Fe Children's Project was born. Katherine is a Governor appointee to the New Mexico Health Insurance Alliance Board.
Barbara I. Damron, Ph.D., RN
Damron Oncology Consulting, NMECDP Advisory Board Member
Dr. Damron is Associate Professor of Nursing at the University of New Mexico Cancer Center and College of Nursing. In addition, she is Director of Oncology Nursing Research and Director of Government & Community Advocacy at the University of New Mexico Cancer Center. Dr. Damron also owns her own business and is President of Damron Oncology Consulting in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is trained as a registered nurse, clinical nurse specialist, and educational psychologist and has been active in the field of oncology for over 30 years. She provides consultation services in the areas of research, professional and patient education, patient counseling, and medical-legal expertise. Additionally, she provides consultation in the area of health care fund-raising. She has worked with the International Council of Nurses, the Oncology Nursing Society, the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, and many local hospitals and agencies.
Dr. Damron received her BSN in 1975 from Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska, and her MSN from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in 1980. She completed a PhD in Educational Psychology, with an emphasis on social/personality/developmental psychology applied to oncology, from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996.
She has 30 years of oncology nursing experience and over ten years experience as a research psychologist. She has been a head nurse, supervisor, administrator, and clinical nurse specialist. Dr. Damron developed and implemented the first state-wide comprehensive cancer nursing education program in the country and was the Director of this program (Nurse Oncology Education Program of Texas) during the 1980’s.
Dr. Damron is past President of the Oncology Nursing Foundation, the largest funding agency for nursing research outside the NIH. She is also past Chairman of the American Cancer Society, Texas-Hawaii/Pacific Division. She is active on the national levels of the American Cancer Society, the Oncology Nursing Society, and the American Nurses Association. She has also served on the St. Vincent Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees, as well as the St. Vincent Hospital Foundation Board, in Santa Fe. She also chaired the board of the Santa Fe Youth Symphony. She currently is Corporation Chair of the Buckaroo Ball, the largest fundraiser in New Mexico. Dr. Damron is also very active in her church, serving as organist and pianist, as well as Parish Nurse.
Dr. Damron is the recipient of the 2001 St. George Medal of the American Cancer Society. Additionally, she is the recipient of the 2002 ONS Distinguished Service Award from ONS and the 2002 Friend of the Foundation Award from the ONS Foundation. She also received the 2004 Woman on the Move Award from the YWCA of New Mexico.
Dr. Damron’s research and professional areas of expertise include: communication, quality of life, side effect management, and chemotherapeutic agent development. Her most recent research addressed the issue of effective communication between breast cancer patients and health care professionals. Dr. Damron has presented over 850 invited lectures nationally and internationally. She has also received over 25 state, national, and international awards for her professional accomplishments.
Dr. Damron lives in Santa Fe and is married to J.R. Damron, M.D., a radiologist, and has two children, Matt, 21, and Allie, 19.
David Lawrence, Jr. - President, Early Childhood Initiative Foundation
David Lawrence Jr. retired in 1999 as publisher of The Miami Herald to work in the area of early childhood development and readiness. He is president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and “University Scholar for Early Childhood Development and Readiness” at the University of Florida. In 2002 he led the campaign for The Children’s Trust, a dedicated source of early intervention and prevention funding for children in Miami-Dade; he now is its chair. Named by Gov. Jeb Bush to the Florida Partnership for School Readiness, he chaired that oversight board for two terms. He is a national board member of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation and the Foundation for Child Development. In 2002-3 he chaired the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Protection. In 2002, he was a key figure in passing a statewide constitutional amendment to provide high-quality pre-K availability for all 4 year olds. In 2004 he was the Governor’s “special assistant for UPK implementation.” He is a board member and former chair of the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade and Monroe.
The David Lawrence Jr. K-8 School, a Miami-Dade Public School for ultimately 1,600 students, opened in August 2006 across from the north campus of Florida International University. A fully endowed chair in early childhood studies has been established in his name at the University of Florida College of Education. He also serves on the board of directors of the Miami Art Museum, United Way, the New World School of the Arts (each formerly as a chair), and the University of Florida Foundation.
Ellen Goldberg, Ph.D. - Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico
Ellen H. Goldberg was President of the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) from 1996 to 2003 where she was responsible for overseeing the financial and scientific operations of SFI. Together with Professor George Cowan, she coordinated the SFI Consortium: Increasing Human Potential, a longitudinal study of cognitive, behavioral and mental development in babies and preadolescents.
Goldberg received her Ph.D. in genetics from Cornell University Medical College receiving the "outstanding dissertation award" in 1971 for her work on cell surface differentiation antigens. She has numerous peer-reviewed publications focusing on the role of the H-Y and Skn differentiation antigens in cell-mediated immunity. In 2005 she received the Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Dr. Goldberg was a faculty member and administrator at the University of New Mexico (where she is currently Professor Emeritus). She has been recognized nationally having received an NIH Research Career Development Award and NIH research grants throughout her career. She has served and chaired panels for the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and American Society for Microbiology. She served as a Founding Board Member of the HopeLab Foundation and is currently on the Advisory Board of the Investment Company of America. She also serves on the Science Advisory Board for the Mind Research Network and is Chair of the Advisory Board for the Family Development Program at UNM.
Robert H. Dugger - Chairman, Partnership for America’s Economic Success Advisory Board
Managing Partner, Hanover Investment Group, LLC
Rob Dugger has had a long and varied career in business and public service. For the past fifteen years he has been a managing partner and director of the Washington office of Tudor Investment Corporation, a global asset management company responsible for approximately $18 billion of investor funds. Tudor is active in currency, bond, equity, and commodity market trading and venture capital investment worldwide. Rob is an expert on government policy assessment and the effects of policy on domestic and global markets and financial institutions.
Prior to Tudor, Rob served as Policy Director at the American Bankers Association, where he led a panel of bank officials in developing a plan that became the RTC and the solution to the U.S. Savings & Loan problem. Rob began his career at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in the early 1970s and served as a senior staff member of both the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee in the 1980s.
Rob's philanthropic commitments are in two areas - investing early in the lives of American children, and wildlife conservation in Africa. In the United States, Rob is a founder of the Partnership for America's Economic Success, chairman of the Invest in Kids Working Group, and a Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development - all projects focused on ascertaining and communicating the economic growth and job creation value of investing early in the lives of children. In his home state of Virginia, Rob is a member of Governor Kaine's Strong Start Pre-Kindergarten Council, served as co-chair of Governor Warner's Virginia Early Learning Council, and is a founding board member of the Alexandria Community Trust.
In Africa, Rob is board chairman of Grumeti Reserves Ltd, a Tanzanian eco-tourism company organized to preserve the Wildebeest migration route in a 450,000 acre game reserve adjacent to the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Grumeti's commercial tourism activities are done in partnership with the world's number-one rated hospitality company Singita Game Reserves www.Singita.com. Rob is also vice chairman of its NGO affiliate, the Grumeti Community and Conservation Fund.
Rob is also a board member of the Democracy Alliance, a partnership of business and philanthropic leaders committed to strengthening progressive policy infrastructure and leadership in the United States. The Democracy Alliance has invested over $100 million in progressive institutions and civic engagement in the past three years. Rob is also a member of the board of directors of Generations United, an association of the heads of the nation's top children and senior citizen advocacy groups.
Rob received his BA from Davidson College and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a Federal Reserve Dissertation Fellowship.
M. Rebecca Kilburn, Ph.D. - Director, RAND Child Policy
Director, Promising Practices Network on Children, Families and Communities
Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School
Senior Economist
Education
Ph.D. and M.A. in economics, University of Chicago; B.A. in economics, Kenyon College
Biography
Responsible for the Promising Practices Network (PPN) on Children, Families and Communities, which provides easy-to-understand information on what works to improve outcomes for children and their families. The Web site is located at www.promisingpractices.net.
Research Focus
Best practices in child and family programs, child care/preschool, demography of families and children
Recent Projects
• Early childhood interventions
• Co-Principal Investigator, Family Links in Children's Health, Education, and Income, with Lee A. Lillard sponsored by NIH
Selected Publications
Early Childhood Interventions: Proven Results, Future Promise, Lynn Karoly et al., RAND Corporation, 2005
Meeting Decision Makers' Needs for Evidence-Based Information on Child and Family Policy," Jill Cannon and M. Rebecca Kilburn, Journal of Policy and Management, Vol. 12, No. 4, Fall 2003
Dorian Dodson - Cabinet Secretary, Children, Youth and Families Department
Dorian Dodson has been in public service for over 35 years in the nonprofit and government sectors. Prior to becoming Cabinet Secretary of the Children, Youth and Families Department in 2007, she worked in the protective services division, programs for the homeless, poverty assistance and refugee programs and manyothers that provide services to vulnerable children and families.
Dorian believes two things: working in human and social services is the best way to spend one’s life and that introductions about her should be very short.
Eugene Garcia, Ph.D. - Vice President, Education Partnership, Arizona State University
In May 2003, Dr. Eugene García was named Vice President for University-School Partnerships by the President of ASU, Dr. Michael Crow. He previously held the position of Dean at Arizona State University’s College of Education (now the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education) from July 2002 to July 2006. Before coming to ASU in 2002, he was Dean and Professor of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley from 1995-2001. This role was to strengthen K-12 education in the state of Arizona by linking together the University and private sector for distribution of fiscal and human resources. As of July 1, 2006, Dr. García stepped down as dean and assumed the new Vice Presidential role as VP for Education Partnerships – this position will carry on the goal of the first VP position and encompass coordination of teacher preparation across colleges and campuses in Arizona, as well as the implementation of the university-public school initiative to establish campus schools.
Dr. García has published extensively in the area of language teaching and bilingual development. He served as a Senior Officer and Director of the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs in the U.S. Department of Education from 1993-1995. He is currently chairing the National Task Force on Early ChildhoodEducation for Hispanics funded by the Foundation for Child Development and the Mailman Family Foundation. He is presently conducting research in the areas of effective schooling for linguistically and culturally diverse student populations funded by the National Science Foundation. His most recent books include, "Hispanic Education in the United States: Raíces y Alas," and, "Understanding and Meeting the Challenge of Student Diversity" — both published in 2001. A new book, "Teaching and Learning in Two Languages: Bilingualism and Schooling in the United States", (New York, NY: Teachers’ College Press, 2005) has been released. Visit Dr. Eugene García's research web site at http://www-gse.berkeley.edu/research/rlc/index.html.
Don Chalmers - President, Don Chalmers Ford
Don Chalmers, president of Don Chalmers Ford in Rio Rancho, N.M., has been a new-car dealer since 1977 and is a member of the Ford Chairman of the Industry Relations Committee. Previously, he has served on the Government Relations Committee.
Chalmers is active in a wide variety of organizations in his community. On the education front he is currently a member of the following boards: University of New Mexico Foundation, College of Santa Fe Board of Trustees, and the Explora Science and Children’s Museum. Past board memberships in education include: 4-H Foundation, Junior Achievement, and the New Mexico Commission on Higher Education, where Chalmers was appointed by Governor Bill Richardson in 2003. Don Chalmers Ford also gives several FFA college scholarships annually, as well as a UNM Presidential Scholarship.
Chalmers is on the following healthcare boards: University of New Mexico Hospital Clinical Operations Board; University of New Mexico Health Sciences Board of Regents St. Joseph Community Health Foundation; and St. Joseph Community Health Services. He is a past board member of the Central NM Affiliation of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, where Chalmers also served as chairman and was instrumental in establishing the local affiliate.
On the economic development front, he is on the following boards: Better Business Bureau, where he served as President; Wells Fargo; Quality New Mexico; New Mexico Amigos, where he also serves as an Albuquerque Area Director; Economic Forum, where he also serves as Chairman; Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce; and Accion New Mexico. Chalmers’ past board memberships in economic development include: Albuquerque Economic Development; Rio Rancho Chamber of Commerce, where he also served as President, Association of Commerce and Industry; and NM First.
Chalmers is currently on the following community service boards: United Way of Central New Mexico, where he served as the 2004 Campaign Chairman and has also served as Major Gifts Chair and as Chairman of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society; United Way of America National Tocqueville Society Council; Albuquerque Community Foundation; Rotary del Sol Club of Albuquerque, where he served as president; Fellowship of Christian Athletes; and St. John United Methodist Church Foundation. Past board membership include the Rotary Foundation, where he served as chairman. Chalmers was also awarded the 2001 Outstanding Community Champion by United Way of Central New Mexico for his leadership during the campaign and influencing other organizations in the community to participate.
Lillian Montoya-Rael
Lillian Montoya-Rael serving as the Project Manager for the NM Early Childhood Development Partnership and the Owner of LMR Consulting LLC. Her firm helps corporate and non-profit leaders navigate through everyday strategic and organizational challenges. The firm designs, develops, and implements programs that make our communities better places to live and work. Whether it’s a new initiative or an established program that needs attention, she helps clients to implement collaborative, innovative and effective solutions to address their unique needs. She has over 20 years of direct work experience in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. In addition, she promotes corporate citizenship through her active leadership roles in community and state organizations. Her professional and volunteer experiences have immersed her in such areas as education, economic development, community development, and corporate giving. Her varied background has positioned her to positively influence issue management in the public-private space.